We get this question all the time and the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT!Plastic Bags are placed over your clothes to protect them from the elements when they are being transferred from our facility to your home. Once they arrive at your home, they should be removed from the plastic bag then stored. I know this may sound crazy but clothes need to breathe and they cannot breathe in a plastic bag. The plastic bags can also cause oxidation which leads to discoloration of the clothes. The damp environment in the bag will be a breeding ground for moths, which will eat through your clothes. Most of us have special outfits that we only wear once in awhile, such as formals. If you’d like extra protection for these specialty items, you can place your items in a cloth garment bag. Arrow sells garment bags in our store and on our website. http://www.arrowcare.com/store/p10/BREATHABLE_GARMENT_BAG_39%22.htmlSources:

This week we received the below note and a copy of KC Magazine from a loyal Arrow customer congratulating us on receiving Top KC Companies - Phonenix Award from KC Business magazine. We are so grateful for the message and the loyalty to Arrow!Hi Gershons,WHAT A GREAT ARTICLE!It makes us glad that we have been "Arrow " customers for over 30 years. Congratulations and best wishes for continued success.We thought you might like an extra copy.Sincerely, Linda and Bob

Arrow receives many complimentary letters, emails and phone calls...Following are some of the most recent ones. We're proud of our work and cherish the reputation we have earned over the years.

"I just wanted to tell you guys that you are phenomenal. You are the best cleaning company that I know. We have sent things to you guys for a long time, leather garments that we wouldn't let anyone else touch it. Every time we send you something that has to be done, you guys to such a superb job. You get it done and you get it back to us, and everything is resolved. We just got a jacket back that my wife said, "they will never get this thing clean", and it just looks phenomenal. I can't tell you guys how good you are, and how much we appreciate you, and we tell everybody that we know about you that has something with dry-cleaning issues, and good quality stuff. I just wanted to let you know that I and my family really appreciate your terrific service. Thank you very, very much!"

Joe B., Mound, MN

"Received the car coat yesterday and am very, very pleased with the results and particularly appreciate the phone calls and follow-up. Thank you and I certainly will use Arrow in the future and recommend you highly. Best regards."

Jim T., Fort Valley, GA

"I just had to send you a thank-you note for the wonderful restoration of my yellow leather Michael Kors handbag. It looks better than new! Thank you so much for a perfect job. I got your brochure from a leather shop here in Amarillo on Western Street. I owe him a thanks, too, for the recommendation to your business."

Kay P., Amarillo, Texas

"To the entire cleaning staff who helped save my leather jacket. It must be really rewarding for you all to be the BEST in the WORLD at what you do. That's so rare to find these days. I just wanted to express my thanks and appreciation to everyone for all you did. You guys aren't just cleaners. You're MAGICIANS! You know how trashed and hopeless that jacket was. Here's to wishing you and yours the very best this holiday season."

Enjoy the party, but with the festivities spills, splashes, and other party-time mishaps, as well as wear alone, can take their toll on these expensive items.

Many formal wear garments are made of luxurious fabrics, such as taffeta, moire, satin, organza, metallic prints, silk, and velvet. Each of these fabrics require care in both wear and cleaning. Here are some tips to keep that outfit looking great:

Treat stains immediately to avoid damage.

Blot stains; do not rub. Rubbing a spot on sheer fabrics, such as organza, can cause the yarns to slip, tear the fabric, or chafe the fabric surface.

Shake excess spills from velvets and allow to dry. Do not blot or apply any pressure in damp areas.

Satin (especially smooth satin), taffeta, and metallic fabrics are especially susceptible to abrasion damage and snagging. Take care when wearing jewelry or around rough edges.

Perfume, deodorant, hair spray, and makeup can be damaging to these fabrics. Apply before you dress and make sure everything is completely dry.

After the party, remember to have your formal wear cleaned before storage.

Some sneaky stains can be a real head scratcher for us if we are working with incomplete information. You may not realize it, but some stains can be made up of compound elements beyond just the obvious presumed cause of the problem.

Coffee stains, for example, often contain milk or other additives, making the stain more difficult to remove since the coffee is a tannin stain and the milk leaves a protein- based stain. Both the coffee and the milk in the coffee are water-based stains, but protein stains require more work to get out. Such stains will have to be treated individually, even though the actual staining occurred at the same time.

If you drop off an item with a coffee stain, please inform the customer service representative how you take your coffee (i.e., with cream and sugar, milk and sugar, black, etc.).

This article originally appeared in the Dry Cleaning Institute "Fabricare" magazine, November 2012

(Three generation of Gershons: Joseph Gershon (top) ran the business from 1914 to the 1950s, when his son Bob Gershon (left) from took over. Grandson, Bruce Gershon (right) assumed the job in 1988.) Bruce Gershon's grandfather, Joseph, started Gershon Tailor Shop in Kansas City, Mo., in 1914. Through nearly 100 years and three generations of ownership and a gradual shift in focus to more wholesale and specialty cleaning work, the family business - then known as Arrow Cleaners & Dyers, Inc .- has prided itself on quality.

Joseph Gershon's middle son, Mel, worked in the business on-and-off when not pursuing his first callings, chemical, and mechanical engineering and inventing. Mel's tinkering produced a patent on the first foam rubber press pad, as well as other innovations that were adopted without fanfare by major manufacturers, according to family legend. After serving in World War II, Joseph's youngest son, Bob Gershon, joined the business, and became an early Kirk's Suede-Life licensee in the mid-1950s, when Arrow began to hone its leather-cleaning skills. After his father died in an automobile accident in 1963, Bob became sole owner. Arrow's business was largely retail and focused on high-end dry cleaning until Bob's son, Bruce Gershon joined the business in the early 1970s. "I started doing more with the wholesale arena," Bruce Gershon says. "I started with servicing local cleaners, and then leather manufacturers and soliciting them to recommend Arrow. We wanted to let them know that there was someone who could clean leather." At one point, a manufacturer sent Arrow several black-and-yellow lambskin jackets as a test. "They thought they would send us something impossible," Gershon says. After sending them back without any color bleed, "he started putting our label in them" - as did many stylish brands of the era, including Ralph Edwards Sportswear, In Transit, and Begedor Italia. "Our growth was accelerating, and part of it was national growth," he says. "We were right in the middle of the country, which was good for servicing mail order. Once manufacturers understood what we had to offer, they would recommend us to stores, and they, in turn, would recommend us to their customers." Another big breakthrough happened in 1993 after Bruce Gershon had visited the New York office of Ralph Lauren. The all-American clothing company was looking to capitalize on a growing trend for vintage apparel, and one of the people in the meeting later called Gershon. "He said, 'This is going to sound crazy, but I want to come and work with you for a couple of weeks,'" Gershon recalls. “‘We’re going to make a vintage clothing line, and I want to replicate these leathers and make them look old.'" Antiquing leather garments turned into a year-long project, with Arrow inventing techniques on-the-spot. "They turned out incredible," Gershon says. 'We found a rock that's indigenous to Missouri, and took old laundry tumblers and filled them with these rocks to tumble the leathers. Then we had to have new baskets made, because the rocks were too heavy for the tumblers. Necessity was the mother of invention." Arrow ultimately produced 12 styles of vintage leather garments and more than 20,000 individual items. The company moved on to jeans, inventing additional processes to produce more than 450,000 pairs of stone-washed and antiqued jeans. "The year after we ended our project, manufacturing went to China and they tried to replicate the things we were doing," Gershon says. "They could never figure some things out, including our patented denim antiquing, but a patent means nothing over there." Arrow still operates its retail business and routes out of its main 26,000-sq.-ft. plant, and also performs fire restoration, reweaving, and luxury French laundry service. The company recently bought out a drapery cleaner, getting all of its equipment and added a new facility with 22,000 more square feet of space. But its commitment to a range of quality cleaning services and customers large and small has never been stronger.

Coming soon to www.ehow.com... In this picture owner, Bruce Gershon, preps for his video shoot with ehow.com. Bruce will be featured in a series of Leather and Fabric care "how to" videos on ehow.com beginning in April of 2012.

Bruce was contacted by ehow.com through one of their producers who had used Arrow's services before. Her husband was going to throw away one of his old leather coats, and she did not want to get rid of it. She did a Google search on leather restoration, and came to the conclusion that Arrow was the best place to send this special coat. She shipped the coat to Arrow through our special online shipping program, and when they received the coat back they were more than thrilled with the results.

Being recognized as one of the premiere leather cleaners in the country ehow.com asked Bruce to do a Leather and Fabric Care “how to” video series. 17 helpful videos were filmed and will be posted on ehow.com starting in April.

Arrow owner, Bruce Gershon, was invited to Denver last weekend to address Dependable Cleaners Customer Service Representatives during their annual all-company meeting. Arrow Leathercare was one of five vendors selected to speak at this event, and of course the topic was skin identification, cleaning, and repairing of leather and suede. Dependable Cleaners put on a very entertaining and educational event, and in reviewing the evaluation forms employees filled out, the majority came away with more knowledge about leathers than any of the other four categories!

When clothing and other garments cannot be cleaned with water, they are cleaned with a dry cleaning solvent. Many articles of clothing are said to be dry-cleanable only. This means if they are cleaned with water they may be damaged. Therefore, these items are cleaned with an organic solvent other than water. Of course, the solvent ISN'T DRY! It just isn't water...thus it is considered dry.